Quickstart · 5 min

From zero to a published workbook.

You'll install the CLI, scaffold a project, build it to one HTML file, and (optionally) publish it to Studio.

1. Install the CLI

Requires Node 18+. Bun, pnpm, and yarn all work.

npm install -g @work.books/cli
workbook --version

2. Scaffold a project

Pick a slug — the file you publish later will be named after it. The default template is a Svelte app; pass --template for others (vanilla, react, mdx). 

workbook init pricing-analysis
cd pricing-analysis
bun install

3. Dev loop

workbook dev watches your source and serves a live preview on a local port. The runtime sandboxing mirrors the production iframe, so behaviour matches what your recipient sees when they open the built file. 

workbook dev

4. Build

workbook build compiles your project to one HTML file under dist/. By default, the build embeds a gzipped snapshot of your source so anyone with the file can run workbook unbundle to recover the project. See Source bundle for the wire format and how to opt out. 

workbook build
ls dist/
That's the file. dist/index.html is a self-contained workbook. You can email it, attach it to an issue, drop it in S3, or open it locally with open dist/index.html. No daemon, no host required.

5. Publish to Studio (optional)

If you want a shareable link with identity and revocation, workbook publish uploads the artifact to Studio. The first run opens a browser to sign in; subsequent runs reuse the stored token. 

workbook publish --group pricing-research

You'll get back a workbooks.sh/w/<id> URL. Studio handles auth, the recipient hits sign-in if the workbook is private, and the artifact streams to their browser inside a sandboxed iframe. See Hosting on Studio for access policies and revocation.

Next steps

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